Dan Lawrence closed in on his second Specsavers County Championship century of the season as he underpinned Essex's response to Surrey's Kumar Sangakkara-inspired 369 at Chelmsford.

Lawrence, 19, received his Essex cap at lunch on the first day and seemed intent to underline the form that earned him a call into the England Lions squad to face South Africa A in a three-match series next week.

He was the dominant partner in an unbroken fourth-wicket stand of 89 with Ravi Bopara that carried Essex within touching distance of the follow-on mark of 220, their first target. At the close, Essex were 154 runs behind with seven wickets in hand and Lawrence was on 78.

Nick Browne, in contrast, had struggled to put a total on the scoreboard this season, but finally notched his first Championship half-century of the season in a dogged show of crease occupation. His 52 took 152 balls and at one point in the afternoon he scored just two runs in 50 minutes' play.

Amar Virdi, an 18-year-old off-spinner, took over the slow bowling duties in the absence of Gareth Batty and retirement of Zafar Ansari, and sent down 24 overs on debut without success but with plenty of guile and no little promise.

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Essex had eventually accounted for Sangakkara in the morning, but not before he had added 23 runs to his overnight score to finish on 200. His record fifth consecutive Championship century took his season's total in Division One to 792 runs and his average to 113.14.

Alastair Cook and Browne raced to 58 for nought in 13 overs before lunch with a flurry of boundaries but the afternoon session turned into one of toil and graft as Essex added just 69 runs. To illustrate the pedestrian progress, the first fifty of the innings took 12 overs and the second a further 24.

Kumar Sangakkara took his overnight 177 to exactly 200 before holing out to Neil Wagner

Cook had struck six fours before the interval but lasted just seven balls after it as he shuffled too far across his stumps and was plumb lbw to Tom Curran for 36.

Browne put on 26 runs with Tom Westley for the second wicket in 15 overs before Westley wafted at one from Sam Curran to give Ben Foakes the catch behind.

Virdi had both Browne and Lawrence in knots at times, though Lawrence went aerial over long leg for the boundary that brought up the Essex hundred. Browne, too, awoke from his stupor to turn successive balls from Virdi off his hip for a combined seven runs.

He finally reached his first Championship fifty of the season from 150 balls when he clubbed Stuart Meaker through midwicket. Two balls later, though, he pulled the same bowler straight to Tom Curran and fell for 52.

Things sped up appreciably in the evening. Bopara got off the mark with successive boundaries off front and back foot, while Lawrence sent thumping cuts off Tom Curran through the covers for fours. He brought up both his half-century, from 98 balls. and the fifty partnership when he swatted Sam Curran to fine leg for his eighth boundary.

In the morning, the Surrey innings had lasted 14 more overs during which time Sangakkara took his overnight 177 to exactly 200 before holing out to Neil Wagner on the long-off boundary.

When Virdi was ninth man out - clean bowled to give Jamie Porter his fourth wicket for 89 - Sangakkara was still five runs short of his double century. He went to 199 when Wagner bowled a leg-side full-toss that was dispatched contemptuously to the boundary. Next over Ravi Rampaul eked out the single that gave Sangakkara the strike and the milestone was duly achieved with a push into the covers off Porter.

Two balls later the Sri Lanka's seven-hour marathon was over. It had encompassed 321 balls and included 27 fours.

His second century partnership of the innings was ended when Porter found the edge of Meaker's bat in the seventh over of the day. Meaker had contributed 49, from 99 balls, to the 110-run eighth-wicket stand.